Never
by Wooden Roses
Summary: Luffy has a nightmare and finds reassurance in his first mate / Rated T because of mentions of pretty bad violence (meant to be read as romantic fluffyness but could be seen as friendship as well)


Hey all :) so this is a bit of an experiment to see if i'm capable of writing something sad :)P feel free to read into it if ya want but i guess you can think of it as friendship.

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing nor do i make any profit from this work. One piece is owned solely by Eiichiro Oda

Monkey D. Luffy started awake, eyes wide, breath heaving. he clutched his thin blanket in his hand until his knuckles turned white and he could feel his nails through the material. he took stock of his surroundings, wooden planks, hammocks, doors.

he tried to calm himself down with the assurance that he was still on the ship, but then the dream came back and he launched himself off his hammock, falling gracelessly onto the wooden floor. not that he cared in the least and began checking to make sure that every one of his eight crewmates were still alive and breathing. much to their dismay at being woken up at the ungodly hour.

Luffy simply fell to his knees after waking Robin and Nami, ignoring the archaeologists silent questioning and Nami's furious yelling.

he heard the door open from a far corner of his mind and was vaguely aware of the other members of the crew stumbling in, rubbing their eyes and yawning before joining in with Nami in their demands.

Luffy simply tuned them out, it wasn't on purpose, but the images that played behind his eyes drowned out the noise, urging him to only pay attention to them. The protests continued, even when Luffy felt the sting of tears appear in the corners of his eyes, and fall silently onto the floorboards.

"Shut up!"

those two harsh words pulled the still shocked captain away from his tortured thoughts and towards his first mate who was glaring at the rest of the crew.

The crew was silent until Sanji huffed and turned on his heel, "Whatever Marimo." he grumbled and yawned before closing the door behind him.

the other's shuffled out, casting questioning looks at Zoro and Luffy as they went. When it was only Luffy, Zoro and the two women who remained, Zoro carefully picked up his silent captain and walked out of the room, leaving Nami and Robin to stare at him quizzically.

the moment the door was shut, Luffy sprung up, escaping from Zoro and backing away slightly, a sickly sweet smile painted onto his features.

"Hey Zoro, sorry about waking you guys up. I thought i saw something outside, it was really big so i thought it was a rock. but it's okay now." he said, trying to hide his inner turmoil behind his smile.

Zoro glared at his captain before striding up to the boy whose smile was beginning to waver.

"That smile doesn't work on me Luffy. you should know that by now." he growled.

That's when Luffy broke, the mask he tried to create fell to the floor and cracked into millions of tiny pieces. His emotions visible to the world.

tears trailed down his face, the considerably smaller smile still there but disappearing nonetheless.

Zoro felt his irritation dissipate seeing his captain cry. feeling his heart give a slight clench, he closed the distance between himself and his captain, before gathering the young boy in his arms and sitting with his back against the railing.

Luffy struggled weakly in Zoro's hold but eventually gave up when he realized the swordsman had no intention of letting Luffy go.

"What is it?" Zoro asked when Luffy seemed to have calmed down slightly.

Luffy stiffened considerably and burrowed his face further still into Zoro's now tear stained shirt.

The air was silent for a moment before Luffy mumbled something quietly.

"Hm?" Zoro asked, not having heard the younger boy.

a great shuddering breath was drawn into Luffy's lungs as he tried to get the courage up to tell the swordsman about his nightmare.

"Y - you all . . . died." Luffy whispered.

Zoro felt himself stiffen as well.

"How?" he asked, coaxing Luffy to tell him about it, hoping it would relieve the boy of his thoughts.

"People without faces, they came and trapped me in seastone, i had to watch." another sob wracked Luffy's small frame and Zoro was dreading to figure out where this dream was going.

"Brook was drowned, trapped in a tank while water flooded in." Luffy gulped, "Franky got pulled apart, every piece of metal torn off until they finally killed him. They made Robin drink something, i think it made her hallucinate, she was yelling and crying. i think she thought we were leaving her behind. only when she looked so broken did they finally kill her." Luffy paused for a moment, and Zoro was silently begging him to stop talking.

"Chopper was given poison. he had five minutes to make an antidote for himself . . . but he didn't make it. One of the ingredients was missing. Sanji was being starved. Every minute seemed like a month that he was starved for until . . . he just stopped moving. Usopp was just tied up and beaten bloody, taunted for being weak and unable to help in fights. only when he was covered in his own blood and motionless on the ground did they stop." Luffy whispered, shuddering as the images came back again, if possible even more vivid than before.

"Then Arlong walked in, he attacked Nami until she was barely breathing and then took her away, promising her that she'd never see the outside again, that's she'd die making maps for him."

Zoro knew what was coming next, the last thing he wanted was to know how he'd died, if it was anything like the other's deaths, he didn't want to even imagine his. But Luffy had to get this off his chest, it would weigh him down forever if he didn't.

Luffy clenched his fist into Zoro's shirt and released a silent sob, "They used your own swords to reopen all of your scars, deeper than they were originally. Then they started cutting up your back, repeating what you said to Hawk eye the whole time they did. "A wound on ones back is the shame of a swordsman,"" Luffy said the same words he'd heard Zoro say and let another tear escape. "Then they snapped your blades in half, while you bled out, tied to a post like when i'd first found you."

Zoro gulped and unconsciously found himself drawing Luffy closer to himself.

"The worst part, was when they just left. leaving me alive to see nothing but your dead bodies around me, when i couldn't do a - anything."

Zoro huffed quietly, then whacked Luffy's head half heartedly. "Idiot."

Luffy felt his heart clench and he started to try and escape again, but Zoro wasn't having that and kept the younger boy still.

"Don't you know us well enough by now that we don't die that easy?" Zoro asked.

Luffy froze and looked down at his lap and nodded slowly. a small but incredibly fake smile easing its way onto his features, before Zoro hit his head again.

"Don't smile when you don't mean it, idiot."

Luffy bit his lip but nodded and started wiping his eyes dry, erasing the signs that he'd been crying.

"I'm sorry." he said quietly, once all the tear stains were gone.

Zoro frowned, "For what? crying?" he asked.

Luffy pouted childishly then hit Zoro over the head, much like he'd done to his captain moments before. "No, I just didn't want to trouble you with my stupid nightmares." Luffy said, huffing and crossing his arms over his chest.

Zoro rolled his eyes, but his gaze hardened, "Never think that something that causes you pain is stupid."

Luffy looked away but nodded again. Zoro grunted, "Good."

The first mate then stood, Luffy still in his arms and marched into the boys room ignoring Luffy's confused mumbles.

Zoro ignored him completely and instead, fell back onto the couch with Luffy pressed into his side.

"Sleep." he grumbled, eyes already closed.

Luffy stared at Zoro for no more than a second before poking his cheek.

"Zooorrrrrroooooo," he hissed, keeping his voice low so as not to wake up the others again.

Zoro furrowed his brow, eyes still shut. "I said, sleep." he said, albeit grumpier as he swatted Luffy's hand away from his face.

The captain was silent for a moment before curling up slightly, pulling his hands against his chest. "You won't leave right?" Luffy asked quietly, tone akin to that of a small child scared of being left alone in the dark.

Zoro turned his head slightly and rested his chin on top of Luffy's head, "Never."

So? is it ok? too sad? i tried to make it kinda angsty but sweet and fluffy at the same time XD

Flames will be used for the resurrection of Portgas D. Ace


End file.
